A few stories about women from my inbox this morning.
• “The most powerful woman in Hollywood,” Disney exec Ann Sweeney, is planning to ditch her post when her contract’s up. She wants to direct TV shows. It’s so nice that a rich, successful white lady can get liberated from the prison of running Disney to follow her dream. Feminism’s awesome! Meanwhile, other Hollywood ladies are nervous that Sweeney will leave “a large, woman-sized hole in Hollywood’s top executive ranks.” As Beauty2K-approved actor Cate Blanchett lamented at the Oscars, Hollywood’s pink-faced dude cabal regards women as a “niche audience.” Feminism fail! [cite]
• Irish orphanage abuse whistleblower-and-champion Christine Buckley has died at 69. Buckley was a survivor of Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin, where inmates were tortured by deranged nuns as a matter of routine. In her efforts to expose the abuse she met with denials and excuses at every turn, but she wasn’t havin’ it. Quoth Seán Ryan, the government dude who oversaw the investigation: “At great personal cost, she brought to public attention terrible wrongs done to children with the authority of the State. She was an indefatigable champion of those who were abused as children and disbelieved as adults. The nation owes her an enormous debt of gratitude.”
A propos of our recent discussion on the preferred demeanor of the oppressed, Ryan also mentioned that Buckley “was a pleasure to meet and to deal with.”
• A 20-year-old woman has lost half her body weight to attract the attention of “absolute dream boyfriend” Justin Bieber. He still hasn’t tweeted her, though. Relatedly, it is unclear why anybody would want to attract the attention of that snotty little asshole Bieber, but the woman defends him as “misunderstood.” Mang, you just wanna hand that gal a copy of the SCUM Manifesto or something. [cite]
• And finally, our dick-chop headline of the week: “Woman Cuts Lover’s Penis Off With Scissors, Kills Him With Hammer After He Raped Her.” We know this story already; no further details are required. [cite]
16 comments
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Lab Rat
March 12, 2014 at 5:58 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
This is cool – but I advise against reading the comments:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/12/289619146/new-jersey-judge-rules-women-can-keep-fathers-out-of-delivery-room
Somewhere in my daughter’s phone is a picture of me pretending to kiss a Justin Bieber cardboard standup.
blue stocking
March 12, 2014 at 6:05 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Will someone please explain to me why women are attacked and mutilated every day in every country and no one even bothers to report it, but let one peen become unattached and it’s international news? Even when said peen was previously used to attack the remover? Never mind. I know. IBTP. I’m no advocate for bodily harm, but it’s so disheartening (and downright frightening!) to realize that a man’s body integrity is sacrosanct while a woman’s is of no concern at all.
By the way, this is the first comment from a long-time lurker, and I would like to say “hello and thank you” to Twisty and all the blametariat for the many years that I have been reading your wise comments. I found them both enraging and comforting. It is so good to know that other women feel the same way that I do, which means I’m not overreacting to things as I am so often told by — guess who? — those who benefit from the patriarchy.
ew_nc
March 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Everyday Sexism, which I normally love, had a Twitter feature today asking for comments from the dudes about how they support feminism. The dudely self-congratulatory Tweets flew! Lots of my Nigel-ing, too. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s high time we had an entire afternoon devoted to praising men for deigning to do the right thing. Lard knows they don’t get enough praise in everyday life!
Twisty
March 13, 2014 at 8:01 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
I saw that Everyday Sexism thing, and wanted to hurl.
Cyberwulf
March 13, 2014 at 3:04 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
I am so goddamn sick of pimply-faced youths on Tumblr defining “gamer girl” and “girl gamer” and how they are different (one is faking an interest in gaming to get men, the other is on Xbox Live screaming racial/homophobic slurs and rape threats like one of the boys), shitting on casual gaming, shitting on every videogame that isn’t a washed out grey and brown military shooter that you play online with all your pimply-faced friends, and declaring themselves the arbiters of who is a True and Honest Gamer (hint: you must be a guy and like only the games they like). Have they ever played the original Duke Nukem on a 386 with a black and white monitor? How about a crappy Space Invaders clone they programmed themselves on a ZX Spectrum using BASIC and a book they got from the library? No? Well shut the fuck up then, pimply-faced youth who doesn’t even know what a Soundblaster is.
Lidon
March 13, 2014 at 6:30 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Lab Rat, good to hear. And thank you for the heads up! I will not read the comments.
tinfoil hattie
March 13, 2014 at 10:01 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thanks, LabRat! I avoided the comments on your recommendation.
Now all the super woman-hating folk will hastily enact legislation in other states to GUARANTEE a father’s right to be in the delivery room. AZ, KS, TX, MS, OK, etc. Mark my bitter words!
shopstewardess
March 14, 2014 at 1:56 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
I tried to access the site mentioned by Lab Rat, and my security program told me it was malicious. I assume it’s been hacked by the MRAs.
iorarua
March 14, 2014 at 3:00 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
The dick-chop headline reminds me of the time when, back in circa 1990, I took a women’s self-defence course.
When I proudly mentioned this to a male work colleague during a coffee break, the silence was deafening. About 2 minutes later, he finally says, ever so thoughtfully and solemnly: ‘Speaking of women’s self-defence, did you read about that woman who cut off her husband’s penis?’ (The said attack had been in the news about 3 years prior to the conversation.)
I nearly choked. Sooo … according to this guy, women taking practical steps to improve their odds of avoiding the very real risk of a rape attack or fending off a rapist equates with the extremely rare occurrence of a disturbed woman who mutilates a man for life.
Other office responses I received when I mentioned the self-defence course were (all preceded by uncomfortable silence):
– from a woman in her fifties, ‘Well, if you’re going to spend your life obsessing about getting raped, you’ll never do anything’
– and from a woman in her twenties, ‘Ooooh …. Do you find it brings out your aggression?’
– and from a woman in her forties, ‘But men get raped too!’
I was hoping someone might say something like: ‘Oh, how interesting! Are you enjoying it?’ … Silly me!
tinfoil hattie
March 14, 2014 at 5:58 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Why am I being so stupid as to try and argue with commenters on a popular whitefem blog about patriarchy? It’s my own fault. Best stick to my cohort here.
Kay
March 15, 2014 at 3:52 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Orphanage abuse, shit’s sake. I’m glad we’ve evolved as a society to the point that we don’t have that anymore. Now there’s such a high demand for infants to be adopted by wealthy white couples, we’re not only emptying out the orphanages, we’re snatching them (willingly or otherwise) straight out of the arms of women in the third world. Progress!
ptittle
March 16, 2014 at 7:16 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
“a man’s body integrity is sacrosanct while a woman’s is of no concern at all” – well said, bluestocking.
cyberwulf, you’re familiar with Anita Sarkeesian’s project, yeah?
someofparts
March 17, 2014 at 9:16 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Another long time lurker commenting a bit. Mega thanks for the site, the spleen, the blametariat.
mybodyisacage
March 19, 2014 at 3:47 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
I remember being eight years old at camp and wondering why none of my friends from the previous year wanted to play baseball anymore and instead wanted to read about what Kirk Cameron’s favorite ice cream flavor was in Teen Beat magazine. Ten years later when I was a counselor, it was all about New Kids On The Block, ten years after that, my cousins were obsessed with N Sync, and now, Justin Bieber. Nothing ever changes; preteen girls are taught to worship and adore silly bratty pop star boys and then, by proxy, the jerks in their class. Mister Teen Boy Star’s favorite band/ice cream flavor is not only known as an answer to a Teen Scene quiz question but eventually becomes the girl’s OWN favorite ice cream flavor/band just as, eventually, Homeroom Peen’s fave movie becomes her own. She is systematically encouraged to not develop any of her own tastes and merely adopt the preferences of some dumbass that her peers, her parents, and all of patriarchal society tells her is her better. Maybe I’m just bitter: My refusal to drool over these vapid pieces of peencrap in airbrushed photos (and the real life vapid pieces of peencrap in my own homeroom) got me ostracized time and time again as a (miserable) adolescent. Nevertheless, this “starve yourself for Bieber” thing is really irritating.
Veganrampage
March 21, 2014 at 7:56 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
On the bright side, Phucking Phred Phelps is dead! Ding dong the wretch is dead! Picture him in Catholic/Baptist?Christian Hell, Arthur Shawcross strangling him over and over and over and over X infinity.
The Westboro Baptist “Church” never would have gotten famous or so condemned had they not protested military funerals. I know you know. Have never heard this point brought up. Anyone?
That family, if a church can be one family, made that one crucial mistake. If they had not done that, they would have been lauded by many in our government, and probably totes popular on the Twitter machine, and the population in general.
Tehomet
March 26, 2014 at 2:27 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
This story in the paper warmed my heart while it boiled my blood: Student’s ‘selfie’ sends a defiant message to her attacker.